[00:03.23] | Chapter 6 Death in the family |
[00:08.50] | After the plague years, we were busy all the time. |
[00:13.61] | There were new companies of players and Will now belonged to the Lord Chamberlain's Men. |
[00:20.64] | The Lord Chamberlain was a very important man,close to the Queen, |
[00:26.66] | and we often put on plays for the Queen's court,and in the houses of the great lords of England. |
[00:34.76] | We had some very good actors. |
[00:37.90] | There was Will,and Richard Burbage,of course,and John Heminges. |
[00:44.38] | And there was Augustine Phillips,Henry Condell,and Thomas Pope. |
[00:50.04] | There were other actors,too,but those six were the real company. |
[00:55.91] | They worked together for more than twenty years.And made a lot of money,too. |
[01:04.86] | I did the costumes and properties for the Chamberlain's |
[01:09.31] | John Heminges said I was the best properties man in the city. |
[01:14.78] | Will was special—because he wrote the plays. |
[01:19.03] | And what plays they were!He never wrote the same play twice,like some writers. |
[01:26.26] | He was always trying something new,something different.And he wrote fast,too. |
[01:34.45] | John Heminges could never understand that. |
[01:38.88] | How can you write so fast,Will?he asked him. |
[01:43.38] | And you never make a mistake or change a word. |
[01:49.48] | Will didn't really understand it himself. |
[01:53.52] | It's all in my head,he said.I think about it, |
[01:57.98] | and then it just comes out on paper. |
[02:02.84] | He wrote a play about love in 1595.Young love. |
[02:09.20] | It was Romeo and Juliet. |
[02:13.19] | It was a very sad play,because the young lovers die at the end. |
[02:18.97] | But the playgoers loved it. |
[02:21.80] | They wanted to see it again and again. |
[02:27.46] | Will played the part of old Capulet,Juliet's father. |
[02:33.33] | One of the boy actors played the part of Juliet. |
[02:37.48] | There were no women actors,so boys played all the women's parts. |
[02:43.35] | Of course, Will never put real love-making on stage. |
[02:48.46] | He did it all with words—clever,beautiful words, |
[02:54.43] | and you forgot that the women and girls were really boys in dresses. |
[03:00.45] | Some of the boy actors were very good,and went on to play men's parts when they were older. |
[03:09.81] | We played Romeo and Juliet at Richmond Palace that year. |
[03:15.02] | We always played before the Queen at Christmas. |
[03:19.32] | She liked to see the new plays,and she paid us 10 a play. |
[03:26.09] | We often had to work through the night to get the stage ready in time, |
[03:31.51] | but it was exciting to be in one of the Queen's palaces at Christmas. |
[03:36.62] | There was a lot of singing and dancing,and eating and drinking. |
[03:42.44] | Some years Christmas began in November and didn't finish until February or March. |
[03:50.43] | The year 1596 began well,but that summer the weather was really bad. |
[03:59.29] | Cold.Wet.It never stopped raining,and the plague began to come back into London. |
[04:10.62] | We were in Stratford for the summer, |
[04:13.55] | but I went down to Hampshire for a few weeks to do some business for Will about some sheep. |
[04:21.24] | Will didn't need me at home,because he was busy writing his new play,A Midsummer Night's Dream. |
[04:30.55] | I came back to Stratford one wet August evening. |
[04:35.81] | The house in Henley Street was strangely quiet,and I went round the back and up to Will's room—his writing room, we called it. |
[04:48.32] | He was just sitting there not doing anything,just sitting. |
[04:57.42] | What's the matter,Will?I said.Where is everybody? |
[05:03.74] | At church.His face was grey,and his eyes looked empty,dead. |
[05:12.40] | What's happened?I asked.What is it? |
[05:18.17] | He looked at me.Hamnet… he began. |
[05:24.84] | Hamnet was ill last week,and…and he died,yesterday. |
[05:34.15] | He was only eleven,Toby,and he's dead.My boy. |
[05:41.24] | My only son.He's dead,Toby.Dead. |
[05:49.48] | He put his face in his hands. |
[05:53.78] | What Can you say to a man when something like that happens to him? |
[05:59.44] | I sat down next to him and put my hand on his arm. |
[06:05.61] | We sat together,silently. |
[06:10.21] | I knew that Will loved that boy of his—red-haired,bright as a new penny, |
[06:18.26] | full of life.Just like his father. |
[06:22.66] | After a while I said,You'll have other sons |
[06:30.63] | Anne's forty already.Will's voice was tired. |
[06:36.70] | She's had no children since the twins. |
[06:41.35] | Well,now,you've got two fine girls in Susanna and Judith. |
[06:47.47] | They'll marry before long,and then you'll have more grandsons than you can count. |
[06:53.48] | You'll see.There'll be boys running up and down stairs,shouting for their Granddad Will! |
[07:02.59] | He smiled sadly,but his eyes were not so empty now.Pleased,I went on quickly: |
[07:10.84] | And there are all your brothers—Gilbert,Richard,Edmund. |
[07:16.15] | They'll have sons too.The Shakespeare family will never die out. |
[07:22.42] | Think of the family,Will,the family! |
[07:27.22] | And he did.He was already a famous poet and playwright,but he was a family man,too. |
[07:36.39] | The next year,1597,he bought a new house for his family. |
[07:42.41] | It was a big,grand house,called New Place,right in the middle of Stratford. |
[07:50.87] | It cost 60 pounds, a lot of money—and the townspeople began to say Mr Shakespeare, |
[08:00.84] | not Young Will the actororJohn Shakespeare's boy. |
[08:06.55] | They were happy to do business with him,and to borrow money from him. |
[08:13.68] | Anne was very pleased with the new house. |
[08:17.63] | The wife of Mr Shakespeare of New Place was an important person in Stratford. |
[08:24.36] | But she still didn't like Will's work. |
[08:29.26] | Actors are wild,dangerous people,she often said to him. |
[08:34.77] | I'm not interested in plays or the theatre, |
[08:38.46] | and I don't want to know anything about your work. |
[08:43.57] | But she liked the money,and the new house,and the new dresses, |
[08:48.27] | and the six fields of apple trees and the big farm north of Stratford that came a few years later. |
[09:00.36] | Will never talked much about Hamnet. |
[09:03.80] | Life goes on and Will was busier than ever. |
[09:07.70] | But I know he thought about his son a lot; |
[09:11.64] | his grief was very deep inside him.A year or two later, |
[09:17.61] | I was talking to John Heminges abut the costumes for Will's new play,King John. |
[09:25.61] | John Heminges was a family man—he had fourteen children in the end. |
[09:31.98] | The noise is his house!Shouting and laughing,coming and going… |
[09:39.62] | John was looking at the playbook. |
[09:43.16] | You see this bit here,Toby,he said. |
[09:47.70] | Will's writing about his son,isn't he? |
[09:52.35] | I read the words slowly,and remembered Will's empty eyes that day in August. |
[10:01.26] | Grief fills the room up of my absent child, |
[10:06.02] | Lies in his bed,walks up and down with me, |
[10:10.88] | Puts on his pretty looks,repeats his words… |
[10:17.41] | Richard Burbage said once that Will's writing changed after Hamnet's death. |
[10:24.09] | Will still laughed at people in his plays, |
[10:27.53] | but he also felt sorry for them—sorry for all the world,good and bad,rich and poor,young and old.And his people were real. |
[10:41.18] | No one was all good, or all bad. |
[10:46.04] | There was a man called Shylock in his play The Merchant of Venice. |
[10:51.81] | This Shylock was a money-lender and a cruel man—everyone hated him. |
[10:59.75] | But in the end,when Shylock lost everything,you had to feel sorry for him. |
[11:07.13] | He was just a sad old man. |
[11:11.48] | Perhaps Richard was right.And if anyone understood Will,it was Richard Burbage. |
[00:03.23] | Chapter 6 Death in the family |
[00:08.50] | After the plague years, we were busy all the time. |
[00:13.61] | There were new companies of players and Will now belonged to the Lord Chamberlain' s Men |
[00:20.64] | The Lord Chamberlain was a very important man, close to the Queen, |
[00:26.66] | and we often put on plays for the Queen' s court, and in the houses of the great lords of England |
[00:34.76] | We had some very good actors |
[00:37.90] | There was Will, and Richard Burbage, of course, and John Heminges |
[00:44.38] | And there was Augustine Phillips, Henry Condell, and Thomas Pope |
[00:50.04] | There were other actors, too, but those six were the real company |
[00:55.91] | They worked together for more than twenty years And made a lot of money, too |
[01:04.86] | I did the costumes and properties for the Chamberlain' s |
[01:09.31] | John Heminges said I was the best properties man in the city |
[01:14.78] | Will was special because he wrote the plays |
[01:19.03] | And what plays they were! He never wrote the same play twice, like some writers |
[01:26.26] | He was always trying something new, something different. And he wrote fast, too |
[01:34.45] | John Heminges could never understand that |
[01:38.88] | How can you write so fast, Will? he asked him |
[01:43.38] | And you never make a mistake or change a word |
[01:49.48] | Will didn' t really understand it himself |
[01:53.52] | It' s all in my head, he said I think about it, |
[01:57.98] | and then it just comes out on paper |
[02:02.84] | He wrote a play about love in 1595 Young love |
[02:09.20] | It was Romeo and Juliet |
[02:13.19] | It was a very sad play, because the young lovers die at the end |
[02:18.97] | But the playgoers loved it |
[02:21.80] | They wanted to see it again and again |
[02:27.46] | Will played the part of old Capulet, Juliet' s father |
[02:33.33] | One of the boy actors played the part of Juliet |
[02:37.48] | There were no women actors, so boys played all the women' s parts |
[02:43.35] | Of course, Will never put real lovemaking on stage |
[02:48.46] | He did it all with words clever, beautiful words, |
[02:54.43] | and you forgot that the women and girls were really boys in dresses |
[03:00.45] | Some of the boy actors were very good, and went on to play men' s parts when they were older |
[03:09.81] | We played Romeo and Juliet at Richmond Palace that year |
[03:15.02] | We always played before the Queen at Christmas |
[03:19.32] | She liked to see the new plays, and she paid us 10 a play |
[03:26.09] | We often had to work through the night to get the stage ready in time, |
[03:31.51] | but it was exciting to be in one of the Queen' s palaces at Christmas |
[03:36.62] | There was a lot of singing and dancing, and eating and drinking |
[03:42.44] | Some years Christmas began in November and didn' t finish until February or March |
[03:50.43] | The year 1596 began well, but that summer the weather was really bad |
[03:59.29] | Cold Wet It never stopped raining, and the plague began to come back into London |
[04:10.62] | We were in Stratford for the summer, |
[04:13.55] | but I went down to Hampshire for a few weeks to do some business for Will about some sheep |
[04:21.24] | Will didn' t need me at home, because he was busy writing his new play, A Midsummer Night' s Dream |
[04:30.55] | I came back to Stratford one wet August evening |
[04:35.81] | The house in Henley Street was strangely quiet, and I went round the back and up to Will' s room his writing room, we called it |
[04:48.32] | He was just sitting there not doing anything, just sitting |
[04:57.42] | What' s the matter, Will? I said. Where is everybody? |
[05:03.74] | At church His face was grey, and his eyes looked empty, dead |
[05:12.40] | What' s happened? I asked What is it? |
[05:18.17] | He looked at me. Hamnet he began |
[05:24.84] | Hamnet was ill last week, and and he died, yesterday |
[05:34.15] | He was only eleven, Toby, and he' s dead My boy |
[05:41.24] | My only son He' s dead, Toby Dead |
[05:49.48] | He put his face in his hands |
[05:53.78] | What Can you say to a man when something like that happens to him? |
[05:59.44] | I sat down next to him and put my hand on his arm |
[06:05.61] | We sat together, silently |
[06:10.21] | I knew that Will loved that boy of his redhaired, bright as a new penny, |
[06:18.26] | full of life Just like his father |
[06:22.66] | After a while I said, You' ll have other sons |
[06:30.63] | Anne' s forty already Will' s voice was tired |
[06:36.70] | She' s had no children since the twins |
[06:41.35] | Well, now, you' ve got two fine girls in Susanna and Judith |
[06:47.47] | They' ll marry before long, and then you' ll have more grandsons than you can count |
[06:53.48] | You' ll see There' ll be boys running up and down stairs, shouting for their Granddad Will! |
[07:02.59] | He smiled sadly, but his eyes were not so empty now Pleased, I went on quickly: |
[07:10.84] | And there are all your brothers Gilbert, Richard, Edmund |
[07:16.15] | They' ll have sons too The Shakespeare family will never die out |
[07:22.42] | Think of the family, Will, the family! |
[07:27.22] | And he did He was already a famous poet and playwright, but he was a family man, too |
[07:36.39] | The next year, 1597, he bought a new house for his family |
[07:42.41] | It was a big, grand house, called New Place, right in the middle of Stratford |
[07:50.87] | It cost 60 pounds, a lot of money and the townspeople began to say Mr Shakespeare, |
[08:00.84] | not Young Will the actororJohn Shakespeare' s boy |
[08:06.55] | They were happy to do business with him, and to borrow money from him |
[08:13.68] | Anne was very pleased with the new house |
[08:17.63] | The wife of Mr Shakespeare of New Place was an important person in Stratford |
[08:24.36] | But she still didn' t like Will' s work |
[08:29.26] | Actors are wild, dangerous people, she often said to him |
[08:34.77] | I' m not interested in plays or the theatre, |
[08:38.46] | and I don' t want to know anything about your work |
[08:43.57] | But she liked the money, and the new house, and the new dresses, |
[08:48.27] | and the six fields of apple trees and the big farm north of Stratford that came a few years later |
[09:00.36] | Will never talked much about Hamnet |
[09:03.80] | Life goes on and Will was busier than ever |
[09:07.70] | But I know he thought about his son a lot |
[09:11.64] | his grief was very deep inside him A year or two later, |
[09:17.61] | I was talking to John Heminges abut the costumes for Will' s new play, King John |
[09:25.61] | John Heminges was a family man he had fourteen children in the end |
[09:31.98] | The noise is his house! Shouting and laughing, coming and going |
[09:39.62] | John was looking at the playbook |
[09:43.16] | You see this bit here, Toby, he said |
[09:47.70] | Will' s writing about his son, isn' t he? |
[09:52.35] | I read the words slowly, and remembered Will' s empty eyes that day in August |
[10:01.26] | Grief fills the room up of my absent child, |
[10:06.02] | Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me, |
[10:10.88] | Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words |
[10:17.41] | Richard Burbage said once that Will' s writing changed after Hamnet' s death |
[10:24.09] | Will still laughed at people in his plays, |
[10:27.53] | but he also felt sorry for them sorry for all the world, good and bad, rich and poor, young and old And his people were real |
[10:41.18] | No one was all good, or all bad |
[10:46.04] | There was a man called Shylock in his play The Merchant of Venice |
[10:51.81] | This Shylock was a moneylender and a cruel man everyone hated him |
[10:59.75] | But in the end, when Shylock lost everything, you had to feel sorry for him |
[11:07.13] | He was just a sad old man |
[11:11.48] | Perhaps Richard was right And if anyone understood Will, it was Richard Burbage |
[00:03.23] | Chapter 6 Death in the family |
[00:08.50] | After the plague years, we were busy all the time. |
[00:13.61] | There were new companies of players and Will now belonged to the Lord Chamberlain' s Men |
[00:20.64] | The Lord Chamberlain was a very important man, close to the Queen, |
[00:26.66] | and we often put on plays for the Queen' s court, and in the houses of the great lords of England |
[00:34.76] | We had some very good actors |
[00:37.90] | There was Will, and Richard Burbage, of course, and John Heminges |
[00:44.38] | And there was Augustine Phillips, Henry Condell, and Thomas Pope |
[00:50.04] | There were other actors, too, but those six were the real company |
[00:55.91] | They worked together for more than twenty years And made a lot of money, too |
[01:04.86] | I did the costumes and properties for the Chamberlain' s |
[01:09.31] | John Heminges said I was the best properties man in the city |
[01:14.78] | Will was special because he wrote the plays |
[01:19.03] | And what plays they were! He never wrote the same play twice, like some writers |
[01:26.26] | He was always trying something new, something different. And he wrote fast, too |
[01:34.45] | John Heminges could never understand that |
[01:38.88] | How can you write so fast, Will? he asked him |
[01:43.38] | And you never make a mistake or change a word |
[01:49.48] | Will didn' t really understand it himself |
[01:53.52] | It' s all in my head, he said I think about it, |
[01:57.98] | and then it just comes out on paper |
[02:02.84] | He wrote a play about love in 1595 Young love |
[02:09.20] | It was Romeo and Juliet |
[02:13.19] | It was a very sad play, because the young lovers die at the end |
[02:18.97] | But the playgoers loved it |
[02:21.80] | They wanted to see it again and again |
[02:27.46] | Will played the part of old Capulet, Juliet' s father |
[02:33.33] | One of the boy actors played the part of Juliet |
[02:37.48] | There were no women actors, so boys played all the women' s parts |
[02:43.35] | Of course, Will never put real lovemaking on stage |
[02:48.46] | He did it all with words clever, beautiful words, |
[02:54.43] | and you forgot that the women and girls were really boys in dresses |
[03:00.45] | Some of the boy actors were very good, and went on to play men' s parts when they were older |
[03:09.81] | We played Romeo and Juliet at Richmond Palace that year |
[03:15.02] | We always played before the Queen at Christmas |
[03:19.32] | She liked to see the new plays, and she paid us 10 a play |
[03:26.09] | We often had to work through the night to get the stage ready in time, |
[03:31.51] | but it was exciting to be in one of the Queen' s palaces at Christmas |
[03:36.62] | There was a lot of singing and dancing, and eating and drinking |
[03:42.44] | Some years Christmas began in November and didn' t finish until February or March |
[03:50.43] | The year 1596 began well, but that summer the weather was really bad |
[03:59.29] | Cold Wet It never stopped raining, and the plague began to come back into London |
[04:10.62] | We were in Stratford for the summer, |
[04:13.55] | but I went down to Hampshire for a few weeks to do some business for Will about some sheep |
[04:21.24] | Will didn' t need me at home, because he was busy writing his new play, A Midsummer Night' s Dream |
[04:30.55] | I came back to Stratford one wet August evening |
[04:35.81] | The house in Henley Street was strangely quiet, and I went round the back and up to Will' s room his writing room, we called it |
[04:48.32] | He was just sitting there not doing anything, just sitting |
[04:57.42] | What' s the matter, Will? I said. Where is everybody? |
[05:03.74] | At church His face was grey, and his eyes looked empty, dead |
[05:12.40] | What' s happened? I asked What is it? |
[05:18.17] | He looked at me. Hamnet he began |
[05:24.84] | Hamnet was ill last week, and and he died, yesterday |
[05:34.15] | He was only eleven, Toby, and he' s dead My boy |
[05:41.24] | My only son He' s dead, Toby Dead |
[05:49.48] | He put his face in his hands |
[05:53.78] | What Can you say to a man when something like that happens to him? |
[05:59.44] | I sat down next to him and put my hand on his arm |
[06:05.61] | We sat together, silently |
[06:10.21] | I knew that Will loved that boy of his redhaired, bright as a new penny, |
[06:18.26] | full of life Just like his father |
[06:22.66] | After a while I said, You' ll have other sons |
[06:30.63] | Anne' s forty already Will' s voice was tired |
[06:36.70] | She' s had no children since the twins |
[06:41.35] | Well, now, you' ve got two fine girls in Susanna and Judith |
[06:47.47] | They' ll marry before long, and then you' ll have more grandsons than you can count |
[06:53.48] | You' ll see There' ll be boys running up and down stairs, shouting for their Granddad Will! |
[07:02.59] | He smiled sadly, but his eyes were not so empty now Pleased, I went on quickly: |
[07:10.84] | And there are all your brothers Gilbert, Richard, Edmund |
[07:16.15] | They' ll have sons too The Shakespeare family will never die out |
[07:22.42] | Think of the family, Will, the family! |
[07:27.22] | And he did He was already a famous poet and playwright, but he was a family man, too |
[07:36.39] | The next year, 1597, he bought a new house for his family |
[07:42.41] | It was a big, grand house, called New Place, right in the middle of Stratford |
[07:50.87] | It cost 60 pounds, a lot of money and the townspeople began to say Mr Shakespeare, |
[08:00.84] | not Young Will the actororJohn Shakespeare' s boy |
[08:06.55] | They were happy to do business with him, and to borrow money from him |
[08:13.68] | Anne was very pleased with the new house |
[08:17.63] | The wife of Mr Shakespeare of New Place was an important person in Stratford |
[08:24.36] | But she still didn' t like Will' s work |
[08:29.26] | Actors are wild, dangerous people, she often said to him |
[08:34.77] | I' m not interested in plays or the theatre, |
[08:38.46] | and I don' t want to know anything about your work |
[08:43.57] | But she liked the money, and the new house, and the new dresses, |
[08:48.27] | and the six fields of apple trees and the big farm north of Stratford that came a few years later |
[09:00.36] | Will never talked much about Hamnet |
[09:03.80] | Life goes on and Will was busier than ever |
[09:07.70] | But I know he thought about his son a lot |
[09:11.64] | his grief was very deep inside him A year or two later, |
[09:17.61] | I was talking to John Heminges abut the costumes for Will' s new play, King John |
[09:25.61] | John Heminges was a family man he had fourteen children in the end |
[09:31.98] | The noise is his house! Shouting and laughing, coming and going |
[09:39.62] | John was looking at the playbook |
[09:43.16] | You see this bit here, Toby, he said |
[09:47.70] | Will' s writing about his son, isn' t he? |
[09:52.35] | I read the words slowly, and remembered Will' s empty eyes that day in August |
[10:01.26] | Grief fills the room up of my absent child, |
[10:06.02] | Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me, |
[10:10.88] | Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words |
[10:17.41] | Richard Burbage said once that Will' s writing changed after Hamnet' s death |
[10:24.09] | Will still laughed at people in his plays, |
[10:27.53] | but he also felt sorry for them sorry for all the world, good and bad, rich and poor, young and old And his people were real |
[10:41.18] | No one was all good, or all bad |
[10:46.04] | There was a man called Shylock in his play The Merchant of Venice |
[10:51.81] | This Shylock was a moneylender and a cruel man everyone hated him |
[10:59.75] | But in the end, when Shylock lost everything, you had to feel sorry for him |
[11:07.13] | He was just a sad old man |
[11:11.48] | Perhaps Richard was right And if anyone understood Will, it was Richard Burbage |